New Zealand Producer Premieres Two Films at Sundance 2016

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From the New Zealand Film Commission Friday, 18 December 2015

New Zealand Producer Premieres Two Films at Sundance 2016

New Zealand producer, Carthew Neal, will premiere two films at next year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Tickled, directed by David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, will screen in the World Documentary section of the festival. Announced last week, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, written and directed by favourite New Zealand director, Taika Waititi, will screen in the festival’s Premieres section.

Tickled follows journalist Farrier, as he stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. When he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn’t stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction. The film was financed by the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and US sales agent MPI. The film will be repped in Sundance by MPI and Submarine Films. New Zealand/Australian distributor, Vendetta plan a 2016 New Zealand theatrical release.

Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, produced by Neal, Leanne Saunders (Born to Dance, The Devil’s Rock, The Weight of Elephants), Matt Noonan and Waititi, stars Sam Neill (Jurrasic Park) and Julian Dennison (Shopping, Paper Planes). Inspired by Barry Crump’s novel, Wild Pork and Watercress, the film recounts the story of misfit kid Ricky Baker. Ricky finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive in this heartwarming adventure comedy. This is Waititi’s fourth film to premiere at the fest (Eagle vs Shark, Boy, What we do in the Shadows).

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is produced by Piki Films, Defender Films and Curious and financed by the NZFC, Curious, Wallace Media Ltd and with the assistance of the New Zealand government’s Screen Production Grant with financing by Kiwibank. Protagonist will handle world sales.

Carthew Neal is a creative film television, and interactive producer forming Piki Films with Taika Waititi and Leanne Saunders in 2014. He is an Associate Producer on upcoming Disney film, Pete’s Dragon. His background in television has seen him produce two seasons of Madeleine Sami’s award winning comedy,Super City and conceiving international reality format Wasted. He is also producing an interactive documentary co-production, I Spy about the Five Eyes Alliance; and a second season of the online cartoon A Band Called Hook Ups.

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival is regarded as the premiere US showcase for American and international independent film. This year, Sundance received an over 12,750 submissions - an increase of over 700 films from the previous year. Only 1.5% of submitted films were invited to screen in this year’s programme of 122 features and 72 short films.

The fest runs from January 21-31. www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival

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